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Autho 


So  jie,  George  Henry 


I 


Title: 


tradn  unionism 


t  developments  in 


Place. 

New 

Date: 

1921 


MASTER    NEGATIVE   # 


COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARIES 

PRESERVATION  DIVISION 

BIBLIOGRAPHIC  MICROFORM  TARGET 


ORIGINAL  MATERIAL  AS  FILMED  -  EXISTING  BIBLIOGRAPHIC  RECORD 


>,  George  llonry,  1887- 

Recent  devclopnents  in  trade  unionism;  labor  in| 
England  and  continental  Europe.-  Tendencies  to- 
wards industrialism.-  American  labor.-  Av/akening 
and  consolidation*-  Labor  before,  during  and  afte 
the  world  war.  By  George  Soulo.   Mow  York,  ^Amal- 
gamated  clothing  workers  of  America ^j  1921. 

Z?.   p.   20  cm.   (Amalgamated  educational  serie 
pamphlet  no,  3) 


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Recent  Developments 
in  Trade  Unionism 


By  GEORGE  SOirLE 


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Amalgamated  Clothing  Workers  of  America 

Fducational  Department.  31  I'ninn  Sq.,  New  Y-    k 


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RECENT  DEVELOPMENTS 
IN  TRADE-UNIONISM 


LABOR    IN     ENGLAND    AND    CONTINENTAL    EUROPE. — 
TENDENCIES      TOWARD      INDUSTRIALISM.  —AMERICAN 

LABOR. AWAKENING     AND     CONSOLIDATION. LABOR 

BEFORE.     DURING       AND     AFTER     THE    WORLD      WAR. 


by  George  Soule 


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AMALGAMATED   EDUCATIONAL    SeRIES,   PaMPHLET  No.   3. 

New  York,  1921. 


1 


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The  Publishers  assume  no  respon- 
sibility for  opinions  expressed  in 
publications.  Accurate  presenta- 
tion of  facts  and  fair  treatment 
of  matter  under  consideration  is 
vouched  for. 


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I.     England 

England  was  the  first  country  in  the  world  to 
feel  the  industrial  revolution,  near  the  beginning 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  which  brought  in  large 
factories,  machine-production,  and  the  control  of 
manufacturing  by  owners  of  capital.  The  modern 
labor  movement  is  therefore  older  in  England  than 
in  any  other  country,  and  trade-unionism  there  has 
had  a  longer  experience  and  more  chances  to  grow 
big  and  powerful.  The  British  labor  movement  is 
also  in  many  respects  more  like  the  American  labor 
movement  than  is  that  in  any  other  country.  On 
both  these  accounts,  it  is  well  to  begin  with  a  sur- 
vey of  recent  tendencies  in  Great  Britain,  for  ex- 
perience has  taught  us  that  many  developments 
in  England  have  been  repeated  at  some  later  date 
on  this  side  of  the  water. 

J.     Organization  of  the  Unskilled 

Thirty  years  ago  the  English  unions  were  for 
the  most  part  exclusive  societies  of  the  highly  skilled 
craftsmen,  which  almost  never  engaged  in  general 
strikes,  and  laid  much  stress  on  insurance  and 
benefit  funds.  The  unskilled  day  laborers  were 
not  organized,   and  machinery  had  not   yet   pro- 


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gressed  far  enough  so  that  automatic  processes  had 
replaced  the  skilled  mechanic  with  workers  who 
are  sometimes  called  "semi-skilled,"  due  to  the  fact 
that  they  do  not  require  a  long  period  of  appren- 
ticeship to  learn  their  trade. 

Perhaps  the  greatest  outstanding  fact  in  the  his- 
ii  r\  if  British  Inlior  during  the  last  thirty  years 
h  !~  '  ■  ■  'he  organization  of  the  great  masses  of 
ntr  ]  and  semi-skilled.  The  dock  workers, 

^     I  i  f^rs,  transport  workers  of  all  sorts  (in- 

•  h^lii  en,  street  railway  and  busmen,  ex- 

it u,  longshoremen,  etc.)  gas  workers,  track 
:  r-  on  the  railroads,  the  lower  grades  of  min- 
ers, ail  these  and  others  have  become  union  mem- 
bers during  the  past  generation,  to  say  nothing  of 
the  great  majority  of  semi-skilled  in  manufactur- 
ing industries.  Their  coming  into  the  ranks  of 
organ !/jti  labor  has  led  to  many  other  changes. 
Fir- 1  iuid  foremost,  it  has  made  the  unions  repre- 
«:cfil  it!v^  not  merely  of  a  small  privileged  class  of 
f!  fiien,  but  of  the  great  majority  of  all  workers 
ation. 

Organization  of  White-Collar  Workers 

n  iich  more  recent  tendency,  coming  to  the 
11!  iiig  and  after  the  war,  has  been  the  organ- 
I  of  clerical,  office  and  professional  workers 
sorts.  Bookkeepers  and  stenographers,  bank 
,  salespeople,  teachers,  newspaper  men,  em- 
's  of  the   government — such    "black-coated" 


1 1 


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workers  who  had  always  considered  themselve« 
part  of  the  middle-class  rather  than  of  the  work- 
ing class,  found  that  in  the  matter  of  wages  and 
salaries  they  were  as  badly  off  as  the  unorganized 
workman,  and  that  in  fact  their  entire  economic 
situation  ranged  them  with  labor  rather  than  with 
their  employers.  They  therefore  adopted  the  same 
means  to  improve  their  position  that  had  been  suc- 
cessful with  miners  and  machinists.  They  organ- 
ized unions  and  joined  the  labor  movement. 

3,     Tendency  Toward  Industrialism 

With  the  increased  organization  of  the  un- 
skilled, the  character  of  the  unions  themselves  be- 
gan to  change.  A  union  of  highly  skilled  operat- 
ives is  naturally  confined  to  a  given  craft,  but  there 
are  not  hard  and  fast  boundaries  between  the  jobs 
of  the  various  unskilled  and  semi-skilled  workers. 
They  are  likely  to  shift  about  from  day  to  day  and 
from  month  to  month.  Furthermore,  the  supply  of 
the  unskilled  and  semi-skilled  is  not  limited  in  the 
same  way  as  the  supply  of  the  highly  skilled  crafts- 
man. Therefore  the  new  unions  had  to  cover  en- 
tire industries  rather  than  special  occupations. 
When  they  struck,  it  did  no  good  to  call  out  a  few 
men  here  and  there;  they  had  to  call  out  all  the 
transport  workers  or  all  the  miners,  as  the  case 
might  be.  The  organization  of  the  unskilled  there- 
fore led  to  the  growth  of  industrial  unionism  as 
opposed  to  craft  unionism. 

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The  recent  organization  of  the  white-collar 
worker  also  assists  the  growth  of  industrial  union- 
ism, because  it  adds  to  the  ranks  of  labor  certain 
iiighly  necessary  persons  who  maintain  the  offices 
'f  file  employer.  If  these  persons  remain  at  work 
In  I  I  strike,  it  is  easier  for  tlir  employer  to 
kf tp  his  business  going  and  to  start  it  up  again 
by  the  use  of  strike-breakers. 

Another  factor  in  the  growth  of  industrial  un- 
i  ?;  in  has  been  the  necessity  of  acting  together  on 
fh  part  of  established  craft  unions  themselves.  If 
i  rtain   metal   fact     ^    liiere  are  machinists, 

i    I  loulders,    iuolmakei»,  metal    polishers,   and 
'  r.us  other  crafts,  mch  organized  in  a  sepa- 
union,  it  is  folly  for  the  machinists  to  go  on 
ilone   for  their   demands,   and  for   all   the 
r  crafts  to  keep  at  work.    This  is  true  because, 
n   n  t»  first  place,  it  is  easier  for  the  employer  to 
If  ft  rf    the   machinists   acting   alone,    and   in    the 
.-^ccot    I  place,  if  they  win,  the  moulders  are  likely 
tn  pn    ,!i  strike  the  next  month  for  their  own  de- 
mands, and  so  on,  so  that  the  work  of  the  factory 
is  disorganized  for  a  longer  period,  and  everybody 
-.Of  course  this  lesson  has  been  learned  in 
^^'     clothing  industry,  where  all  the  workers  in  a 
factor)   co-operate  in  struggles  against  the  employ- 
er    But  if  you  imagine  the  cutters,  the  operators. 
Hill  <  ach  of  the  other  crafts  organized  in  separate 
! I 'I  ions  and  striking  at  different  times,  with  no  joint 
board  to  govern  their  activities,  you  will  imagine 

6 


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the  actual  situation  in  the  metal  and  many  other 
industries  as  it  was  in  England  a  few  years  ago 
and  still  exists  to  a  large  extent  in  the  United  States. 

The  natural  result  has  been  to  bring  about 
amalgamation  and  federation  of  various  craft  un- 
ions which  had  grown  up  in  the  same  industry. 
In  England,  for  instance,  the  Amalgamated  Society 
of  Engineers,  which  originally  included  only  ma- 
chinists, now  has  combined  with  so  many  other 
unions  that  it  covers  virtually  the  whole  metal  in- 
dustry. Other  less  recent  examples  of  industrial 
organization  are  the  National  Union  of  Railway- 
men,  the  Transport  Workers'  Federation,  and  the 
Miners'  Federation.  Both  Transport  Workers  and 
Miners,  although  they  are  called  "federations",  are 
now  practically  single  unions.  Not  one  of  these 
bodies,  however,  sprang  up  in  a  night,  but  they 
were  the  result  of  years  of  growth,  in  which  the 
organization  of  the  unskilled  and  semi-skilled,  and 
the  processes  of  amalgamation  and  federation  of 
separate  unions,  all  helped. 

4.     The  Triple  Alliance 

Several  years  ago  the  National  Union  of  Rail- 
waymen,  the  Miners'  Federation,  and  the  Trans- 
port Workers'  Federation  formed  what  is  popular- 
ly known  as  the  Triple  Alliance,  for  industrial  ac- 
tion. This  is  an  extension  of  the  principle  of  in- 
dustrial unionism  to  the  inter-industrial  field.  Of 


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course  coal  is  the  basis  of  all  British  industry,  for 
without  coal  the  factories  have  no  power.  But  the 
railroads  transport  the  coal,  and  in  doing  so  they 
must  use  coal  in  their  locomotives.  If  there  were  a 
long  miners'  strike,  therefore,  the  railroad  men 
would  be  out  of  work,  and  if  there  were  a  long 
railroad  strike,  the  miners  would  be  out  of  work. 
The  same  applies  to  the  transport  workers,  who  are 
employed  at  the  harbors  and  terminals.  Therefore 
the  three  unions  agreed  to  act  in  concert  as  much 
as  possible.  By  doing  so  they  could  wield  immense 
power,  because  if  they  should  all  go  out  at  once, 
Great  Britain  would  be  paralyzed. 

So  far,  there  has  never  been  a  strike  of  the 
whole  Triple  Alliance.  It  has  been  used  as  a  threat 
rather  than  as  an  actual  weapon.  When  the  rail- 
waymen  went  on  strike,  the  miners  and  transport 
workers  said  they  would  have  to  join  forces  with 
their  comrades  unless  the  strike  was  settled  quickly, 
and  their  pressure  helped  to  bring  about  a  settle- 
ment. The  same  was  true  when  the  miners  struck. 
While  the  Triple  Alliance  is  a  powerful  threat,  it 
has  thus  proved  itself  a  little  unwilling  as  a  weapon. 
It  is  so  powerful  that  the  unions  themselves  have 
hesitated  to  use  it,  knowing  that  a  general  strike  in 
all  three  industries  would  start  a  conflict  the  end  of 
which  nobody  could  predict.  It  might  even  end  in 
a  revolution.  But  a  revolution  cannot  be  started 
every  few  months  to  settle  minor  grievances.  The 
Triple  Alliance  will  not  make  good  its  threat  until 


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there  is  a  clear  issue  and  one  large  enough  to  en- 
gage the  support  of  the  entire  labor  movement. 

5.     Labor  General  Staff 

The  last  railway  strike  awakened  labor  to  the 
fact  that  all  unions  are  really  involved  in  a  great 
movement  such  as  a  strike  in  a  basic  industry.  The 
Triple  Alliance  itself  was  not  inclusive  enough  to 
represent  the  many  workers  who  would  suffer  or 
benefit  by  a  great  conflict  which  might  arise  between 
labor  on  one  side,  and  employers  and  government 
on  the  other,  whenever  the  railwaymen  and  miners 
go  out.  A  number  of  unions  began  to  see  that  the 
whole  labor  movement  would  have  to  be  better  or- 
ganized to  control  such  matters. 

As  things  stood,  there  were  a  great  many  sep- 
arate unions,  each  one  fighting  its  own  battles  in 
its  own  way,  with  nothing  at  the  top  to  co-ordinate 
their  action.  The  British  Trades  Union  Congress, 
which  is  the  central  body  of  all  British  unions,  had 
little  executive  power;  it  was  merely  a  loose  federa- 
tion holding  a  convention  once  a  year,  much  like 
the  American  Federation  of  Labor.  The  real  power 
remained  in  the  separate  national  unions  in  the 
different  trades  and  industries.  Yet  the  warfare 
between  labor  and  the  employers  was  going  on  all 
the  time.  The  labor  army  was  like  an  army  made 
up  of  a  lot  of  separate  regiments  and  divisions,  with 
no  high  command  to  plan  the  campaign.  The  result 
was  that  the  labor  army  was  in  grave  danger,  be- 

9 


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caose  the  employers  were  likely  to  pick  a  time  anJ 
a  place  of  attack  very  unfavorable  to  labor,  pro- 
voke a  conflict  with  some  separate  union,  and  then 
draw  all  the  rest  into  the  battle,  only  to  defeat  them. 

i  lit    f  nlv  way  to  guard  against  this  danger  was  to 
labor  general  staff,  like  the  general  staff 


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llie  general  staff  of  an  army  does  not  consist 
of  1  fp%\^  men  who  issue  orders.  It  is  like  a  brain: 
it  gathers  useful  information  of  all  kinds,  studying 
\he  latest  weapons  and  methods  of  warfare,  the 
plans  and  equipment  of  the  enemy,  the  country  in 
which  fighting  is  to  be  done.  It  regulates  the  vari- 
miR  branches  of  the  army  so  that  the  artillery  and 
the  infantrv  ^iiall  not  be  working  at  cross  pur- 
poses, luf  shall  help  each  other.  In  fact,  it  per- 
forms for  the  army  most  of  the  purposes  that  a 
brain  and  nervous  system  perform  for  the  body. 
I  I  r  the  basis  of  the  information  it  gathers,  the 
romiuands  are  issued. 

British  labor  is  now  engaged,  therefore,  in  build- 
ing up  a  general  staff  to  furnish  the  various  unions 
with  the  information  and  counsel  which  they  need 
if  !lif\  are  to  help  each  other  properly,  and  are 
jiol  to  fe  caught  napping  hv  the  employers.  It  will 
try  to  enable  the  whole  lal  or  movement  to  plan 
its  >aigns  intelligently,  instead  of  fighting  as 

a  lot  of  separate  units.    ^*  irse  it  is  a  long  and 

diflScult  task  to  build  up  such  a  general  staff,  and 
we  shall  not  see  it  in  full  operation  for  some  time. 

10 


i. 


6.     The  Council  of  Action 

In  pressing  emergencies,  particularly  of  a  po- 
litical nature,  British  Labor  could  not  wait  for  the 
slow  building  of  a  general  staff.  This  was  the  case  re- 
cently when  Labor  feared  that  the  government  was 
about  to  enter  the  war  of  aggression  against  Rus- 
sia, and  so  start  a  new  European  conflict.  A  special 
convention  of  the  unions  was  called,  and  a  resolu- 
tion was  passed  to  call  a  nation-wide  general  strike 
if  necessary  to  prevent  armed  intervention  in  be- 
half of  Poland.  In  order  to  leave  some  body  to  put 
this  action  into  effect  in  case  the  circumstances 
warranted,  the  Council  of  Action  was  formed.  The 
result  was  that  the  government  backed  down,  and 
announced  that  it  did  not  intend  to  fight  Russia. 
The  Council  of  Action  was  formed  for  this  pur- 
pose alone,  but  it  is  an  interesting  sign  of  British 
labor's  earnestness  in  threatening  direct  action  for 
a  political  purpose. 

7.     The  Shop  Steward  Movement 

During  the  wai  an  interesting  new  movement 
arose  from  the  rank  And  file.  Many  of  the  unions 
for  years  had  had  shop  stewards,  who  performed 
part  of  the  duties  of  he  shop  chairmen  in  the 
American  clothing  industry.  That  is,  they  saw  that 
workers  in  the  shops  had  union  cards,  paid  their 
dues  and  assessments,  etc.  But  during  the  war  they 
took  on  new  duties.  The  higher  officials  of  the  un- 

11 


•i'fl 


ions  ssvre  prevented  from  activity  by  the  fact  that 
the  guvLiiiment  had  forbidden  strikes,  and  had  at- 
tached heavy  penalties  to  fomenting  or  calling 
strikes.  Nevertheless  many  grievances  arose  in  the 
separate  shops.  The  shop  stewards  began  to  go 
directly  to  the  employers  with  these  grievances. 

The  structure  of  many  of  the  unions  also  pre- 
}    hem  from  caring  for  these  local  grievances. 

\  Tit  union  of  machinists,  for  instance,  would  not 
t  '\ei  all  the  workmen  in  a  single  shop,  but  one  of 

I-  iorals  might  rxtpnd  over  a  whole  city,  including 
machmists  in  a  number  of  different  sho]  ^uoh  a 
local  could  not  act  easily  in  individual  shops.  A 
form  of  shop  organization  was  necessary.  There- 
fore the  shop  stewards  of  the  various  unions  in  a 
given  shop  would  get  together  and  form  a  shop 
rommittee,  representing  all  the  workmen  in  that 
establishment  in  their  dealings  with  a  single  em- 
ployer. Sometimes  unofficial  stewards  were  elected 
for  this  purpose. 

The  next  move  was  for  the  shop  committees  in 
a  given  city  or  district  to  affiliate  with  each  other, 
and  in  one  or  more  cases  strikes  were  conducted  by 
such  a  group  of  committees.  The  movement  gave  a 
-irt vfi;^  impetus  to  the  tendency  toward  industrial 
iiiiiiiiiisni,  and  sonir  of  its  leaders  believed  that  it 
would  result  in  a  new  type  of  unionism,  which 
would  be  more  revolutionary  than  the  old.  The 
movement  has  now  died  down,  however,  since  in 
most  cases  the  shop  committees  have  been  incor- 

12 


f1 


1 


porated  in  the  regular  union  structure,  the  unions 
having  broadened  out  so  that  they  are  more  in- 
dustrial m  nature.  It  is  interesting  to  see  that  the 
form  of  unionism  which  the  shop  steward  move- 
ment aimed  towards  is  almost  exactly  the  form 
which  has  long  existed  in  the  case  of  the  Amalga- 
mated Clothing  Workers,  with  its  shop  chairmen 
and  joint  boards. 

8.     The  National  Guilds  Movement 

Another  interesting  movement  which  arose 
among  intellectuals  rather  than  among  the  rank 
and  file,  but  is  having  a  great  influence,  is  the  agita- 
tion for  National  Guilds.  The  National  Guildsmen 
are  socialists  because  they  believe  that  the  wage 
system  should  be  abolished,  but  they  differ  from 
many  old-fashioned  socialists  in  their  proposals  for 
the  organization  of  industry  under  Socialism.  They 
do  not  believe  that  industry  should  be  managed 
bv  the  state  or  the  government,  but  lean  more  to 
the  position  of  the  Syndicalists,  that  the  workers  m 
each  industry  shuold  manage  it. 

If  the  mining  industry,  for  example,  were  man- 
aged according  to  their  theories,  the  mines  wou^d 
be  owned  by  the  state.  But  the  mines  would  actually 
be  run  by  a  great  industrial  union,  consisting  of  all 
the  people  working  in  the  industry  -  the  brain 
workers  included,  of  course.  This  union  would 
take  care  of  unemployment,  technical  education, 

18 


'i%tl^/" 


,  !^t  Wl^g^S^^^H^ff-^^W*^  >J^  '  *'"'  ^•■'^  i^ 


and  in  fact  all  of  the  problems  arising  in  the  pro- 
duction  of  coal.  A  similar  guild  would  manage  the 
railroads.  A  central  body  of  some  sort,  with  dele- 
gates from  all  the  various  guilds,  would  take  care 
of  problems  common  to  all  industry.  The  state 
would  merely  attend  to  matters  like  education  and 
foreign  policy. 

9.     Growth  of  the  Labor  Party 

For  many  years  the  Socialist  movement  in  Great 
Britain  was  small  and  ineffectual.  Organized  labor 
as  a  whole  was  not  behind  it.  It  made  little  appeal 
to  the  average  worker.  Later  on  a  group  of  Social- 
ists  formed  the  Independent  Labor  Parly.  Its  plat- 
form  was  a  socialist  platform,  its  appeal  was  in 
every-day  language.  It  set  out  with  the  avowed 
purpose  of  bringing  the  whole  labor  movement  in- 
f  *  politics  as  a  unit. 

After  awhile  it  was  successful,  when   on  ac- 
count of  adverse  court  decisions  and  legislation  the 
Irades  Union  Congress  voted  to  establish  the  Brit- 
ish Labor  Party.  The  platform  of  the  new  party 
was  not  very  radical  at  first,  but  the  Independent 
Labor  Parly  affiliated  with  it  in   order  gradually 
to  mfluence  its  policy.  Little  by  little  it  has  adopted 
socialist  principles,  until  now  it  has  a  program  that 
may  he  called  socialist.  It  has  even  progressed  be- 
II  I  adherence  to  political  action  for  political  pur- 
having  urged  the   unions  to  enter  upon  a 

14 


I)  i  i  51" :-, 


general  strike  in  the  Russian  and  other  questions. 
At  the  same  time  it  has  grown  numerically,  until 
now  it  is  the  largest  party  outside  the  Coalition 
government.  It  has  already  captured  many  local 
governments,  and  hopes  before  many  years  to  have 
a  majority  in  Parliament.  Organized  labor  is  almost 
solidly  behind  it,  and  it  has  long  been  supported 
by  trade-union  funds. 

IL     European  Trade-Unionism 

The  continental  labor  movement  is  not  so  simi- 
lar to  the  American  as  is  the  English,  and  on  ac- 
count of  the  confusion  and  destruction  of  the  war 
its  recent  tendencies  have  not  been  so  stable  and 
significant.  In  some  countries  its  character  has  been 
affected  by  revolutions  and  the  installation  of  nom- 
inally socialist  governments,  as  well  as  by  the  for- 
mation of  more  radical,  communist  groups.  In 
others  it  has  been  severely  handicapped  by  reac- 
tion. 

The  most  interesting  developments  have  been 
in  Germany  and  Italy.  In  Germany  at  present  there 
is  rapidly  developing  ajcouncils  movement  similar 
to  the  British  shop-steward  movement.  It  is*tm- 
oflSciai,  and  not  encouraged  by  the  trade-miions 
themselves.  It  consists  ot  shop  councils  including 
all  the  workmen  in  a  plant,  regardless  of  the  union 
or  the  political  party  to  which  they  belong.  These 
shop  councils  are  in  turn  being  aflSliated  by  indus- 

16 


\ 


•'    ■*'>r 


■i,ia!"-  »*«iSii*>«*  -MK*-'" 


vly 


try  and  by  district.  The  aim  is  to  build  up  a  united 
labor  movement  on  the  industrial  and  inter-indus- 
trial principle,  which  shall  be  all-inclusive  on  the 
industrial  field. 

In  Italy  the  most  striking  development  also  was 
liOL  planned  by  the  officials.  Threatened  by  a  lock- 
out, the  metal  workers  remained  in  the  metal  plants 
ami  continued  to  operate  them.  The  movement 
spread  to  many  other  industries,  until  a  large  pro- 
l»or!iHii  of  Italian  factories  were  actually  in  the 
hands  of  the  workers.  Neither  the  government  nor 
the  employers  attempted  to  throw  out  the  workers 
by  force,  but  a  compromise  was  reached  by  which 
the  fartories  were  returned  to  their  former  owners 
on  condition  that  a  certain  degree  of  "control"  be 
given  to  the  workers'  committees.  This  control  con- 
sisted largely  of  the  right  to  inspect  the  employers' 
books.  It  is  looked  upon  merely  as  a  stepping  stone 
to  larger  concessions  in  the  future. 

in.     Trade-Unionism  in  America 

I  1  the  United  States  the  history  of  trade-union- 
ism has  been  in  many  respects  similar  to  that  in 
England,  but  there  have  been  other  influences  here 
which  have  delayed  and  modified  its  growth. 

America  was  for  many  years  a  *'new  country" 
— that  is,  a  country  in  which  there  was  plenty  of 
•pare  land  and  undeveloped  natural  resources  such 
as  forests,  minerals,  etc.,  waiting  to  be  taken  up 

16 


i] 


by  the  pioneer.  There  was  no  hereditary  barrier  be- 
tween  classes,  and  so  it  was  easier  for  the  workman 
to  accumulate  property  and  become  an  employer 
than  in  the  older  countries  across  the  Atlantic. 
This  fundamental  factor  delayed  and  restricted  the 
development  of  a  working-class  consciousness  for 
years,  and  still  operates  to  a  limited  degree  in  our 
traditions. 

Another  influence  affecting  our  labor  move- 
ment has  been  the  fact  that  a  large  proportion  of 
our  manual  workers  have  always  been  immigrants 
unfamiliar  with  the  language  and  customs  of  the 
country.  It  was  naturally  more  diflScult  for  such  a 
vast  mixture  of  races  speaking  different  languages 
to  unite  in  the  Trade  Union  movement,  and  racial 
and  national  prejudices  have  cut  across  the  natural 
unity  of  the  working  class.  We  had  in  this  country, 
for  instance,  the  same  divergence  between  the  craft 
unions  of  the  highly  skilled  and  the  unorganized 
majority  of  unskilled  that  existed  in  England  thirty 
years  ago,  but  here  this  divergence  was  intensified 
by  the  prejudice  of  the  native-bom  against  the 
'^foreigner." 

Therefore,  although  capitalism  has  grown  here 
even  to  vaster  proportions  than  in  England,  and  al- 
though a  large  proportion  of  our  population  are 
now  permanently  wage-workers,  our  trade-union 
movement  is  far  behind  that  in  England.  This  may 
be  attributed  in  part,  of  course,  to  the  conservative 
policies  of  leaders  of  the  American  Federation  of 

17 


«?4 


ml  ^.ii^mi4»'i|JMM-mm!i^i.vW4i.-ujU.u 


.    UJJ    M\    :  .J^«:-4.-- 


t   \ 


\''' 


"S'-'W- 


i-fjSHj 


fe,"    *»»*> 


i*.,ij^^fc^ 


\9J 


Labor,  but  we  must  not  forget  that  the  supremacy 
of  these  leaders  has  been  in  large  measure  due  to 
the  basic  economic  and  social  conditions. 

i.     Position  of  Labor  Before  the  War 

Several  years  before  the  Great  War  the  Ameri- 
can Labor  Movement  was  in  approximately  the 
same  situation  that  the  British  Labor  Movement 
occupied  thirty  years  ago,  although  in  some  re- 
spects it  was  even  weaker.  Most  of  its  unions  were 
organized  on  the  craft  basis,  although  there  were 
exceptional  industrial  unions  like  the  United  Mine 
Workers  and  the  Brewery  Workers.  The  strongest 
unions  were  in  the  building  trades  and  the  printing 
trades.  The  coal-miners'  organization  was  growing 
rapidly,  but  it  was  our  only  stronghold  in  basic 
industry.  The  four  big  railroad  brotherhoods  were 
still  fighting  for  recognition — they  consisted  of  the 
more  skilled  men  such  as  the  engineers,  conductors, 
firemen  and  trainmen — and  the  other  railroad  em- 
ployees had  only  a  vestige  of  organization.  The 
longshoremen  were  not  yet  strongly  organized,  al- 
though the  teamsters  had  attained  some  strength. 
The  foundations  of  the  needle-trades  unions  had 
been  laid  in  New  York,  but  their  greatest  growth 
did  not  come  until  later.  Most  of  the  great  basic 
industries  were  scarcely  touched  by  the  unions — 
that  is,  the  industries  such  as  metal  mining,  iron 
and  steel,  oil,  textiles.  Even  the  machinists'  union 
was  fighting  for  it-  1'fc. 

18 


> 


The  principle  of  industrial  unionism  had  long 
been  preached  in  America,  but  it  had  not  been  put 
into  successful  practice.  Eugene  V.  Debs  had  tried 
to  found  an  industrial  union  of  railway  workers, 
fighting  the  old  Brotherhoods,  but  his  attempt  was 
unsuccessful.  The  L  W.  W.  set  up  a  new  organiza- 
tion to  compete  with  the  entire  A.  F.  of  L.,  but  it 
never  gained  the  allegiance  of  any  large  propor- 
tion of  the  workers  for  long.  Many  smaller  attempts 
to  set  up  a  new  labor  movement  on  the  industrial 
principle  have  been  made,  but  their  chief  tangible 
result  is  propaganda  and  discussion.  Meanwhile  the 
old-line  unions  were  cautiously  extending  their 
strength  little  by  little,  and  the  whole  trade-union 
movement  was  making  inroads  upon  industry. 


2.     Amalgamations 

• 

Of  course  the  system  of  craft  unions  gave  rise 
to  many  jurisdictional  disputes,  when  two  or  more 
unions  would  compete  for  the  allegiance  of  the 
same  group  of  workers.  One  result  of  these  quar- 
rels was  a  series  of  amalgamations  among  the  un- 
ions concerned.  We  have  a  habit  of  calling  the  old- 
line  unions  craft  unions,  and  yet  so  many  amalga- 
mations have  taken  place  among  them  in  the  course 
of  time  that  there  is  hardly  one  of  them  that  is 
a  strictly  one-craft  union  in  the  old-fashioned  sense. 
To  illustrate  this  point  we  have  only  to  look  at  the 
building  trades.  The  carpenters,  joiners  and  cabinet 

19 


IP 


/  h 


'»>1i*-'.*l 


makers  are  in  the  same  union,  the  painters,  decor- 
ators and  paperhangers  are  grouped  together,  etc. 
Furtliermore,  each  of  the  craft  unions  has  shown 
an  increasing  tendency  to  organize  the  unskilled 
and  semi-skilled  with  which  it  was  most  closely  as- 
sociated. Thus  within  the  most  conservative  unions 
themselves  the  tendency  toward  industrialism  has 
cropped  up  in  the  formation  of  what  may  be  called 
inter-craft  unions. 


3,     Departments 

Another  expression  of  the  tendency  toward  in- 
dustrial unionism  in  the  A.  F.  of  L.  has  been  the 
formation   of  "Departments".   Thus,  the  Railway 
Employees'  department  is  a  national  body  consist- 
ing of  delegates  from  all  the  various  A.  F.  of  L. 
unions  which  have  members  working  on  the  rail- 
roads. In  negotiations  with  the  government  or  the 
private  employers  about  raUroad  matters  it  fulfills 
many  of  the  duties  of  an  industrial  union  covering 
the  railway  lines  of  the  country.  The  unions  con- 
cerned, however,  retain  the  craft  form  of  organ- 
ization for  use  where,  as  in  the  case  of  the  machin- 
ists, the  memb(  r  flip  extends  into  many  other  in- 
dustries also.  Other  departments  cover  the  build- 
ing trades,  the  food  trades,  the  mining  trades,  and 
the  printing  trades.  Some  of  these  departmonts  are 
active  and  powerful,  but  others  exist  principally 
on  paper. 

20 


4.     Growth  of  Unions  During  the  War, 

After  America's  entrance  into  the  war,  many 
of  the  unions  advanced  materially  both  in  num- 
bers and  power.  This  was  particularly  true  on  the 
railroads  and  in  the  war  industries  such  as  ship- 
building and  munition  manufacturing.  The  short- 
age of  labor,  caused  by  the  demand  for  production, 
and  the   shutting   off  of  immigration   placed  the 
workers  in  a  temporarily  advantageous  position. 
The  government  saw  that  it  was  wise,  instead  of 
letting  the  unions  take  full  advantage  of  the  situa- 
tion, to  give  them  official  recognition,  and  thus  to 
substitute    arbitration    and    conciliation    for    the 
strikes  which  would  otherwise  have  resulted.  The 
national  Railway  Administration  set  up  a  series  of 
labor  adjustment  boards  which  made  easy  the  or- 
ganization of  a  vast  number  of  railway  employees 
who  had  previously  been  intimidated  by  hostile  em- 
ployers. The  same  process  went  on  imder  the  Ship- 
ping Board  and  the  Emergency  Fleet  Corporation, 
under  the  War  and  Navy  Departments,  and  imder 
the  War  Labor  Board,  which  had  jurisdiction  over 
disputes  in  many  industries  necessary  to  the  war, 
and  not  covered  by  the  other  boards.  The  result  was 
an  immense  strengthening  of  unions  such  as  the 
various  railway  crafts,  the  machinists,  the  boiler- 
makers  and  iron   shipbuilders,  the  longshoremen 
and  transportation  trades,  and  others. 


21 


■f^a 


^ 


T^f'Kjm'' 


5.     Growth  of  the  Needle-Tradet  Vniom 

of  thfTJ^^^  '^/  organization  of  all  branches 

tLj  i  !"^  ^^^^'  '"''  '^'y  ^^^l'-  1°  that  year 
he  cloakmakers  won  their  strike  in  New  York/and 
the  men  s  clothing  workers  won  recognition  of  their 
ahop  comm  ttee  in  the  shops  of  Hart,  Schaffner  and 
Marx  xn  Chicago.  After  1910  the  various  crafts  mak- 
ing women  s  garments  advanced  rapidly,  under  the 
International  Ladies'  Garment  Workers'  Union 
Ihe  progress  of  the  men's  clothing  workers  under 

the  United  Garment  Workers  was  «lnw  <.„ 

-   ,  .  '""'"■'^'^'' was  Slow  on  account 

of  the  reactionary  officials  of  the  organization,  but 
the  formation  of  the  progressive  Amalgamated 
Clothmg  Workers  in  1914  was  the  signal  for  their 
rapid  advance  also.  Now  these  miions  include  a 
arge  majority  of  the  workers  in  the  clothing  indus- 
tiT,  havmg  m  a  few  years  stepped  to  the  forefront 
01  tlie  trade-union  movement. 

Their  rapid  growth  is  especially  significant 
snice  It  was  not  due  to  the  favorable  c'ircu'mstances' 
of  the  war  so  much  as  to  their  energetic  practice  of 
many  of  the  principles  of  industrial  unionism.  The 
formation  of  the  Needle  Trades  Federation,  to 
include  not  only  these  two  unions  but  also  the 
Journeymen  Tailors,  the  Cloth  Hat  and  Cap  Mak- 
ers,  and  the  Furriers,  will  if  successful  be  another 
big  step  m  the  direction  of  their  goal. 


22 


6.     Federations  and  Shop  Committees 

Outside  of  the  needle  trades,  a  shop  committee 
movement    similar    to    the    English    shop    steward 
movement  began  years  ago  in  the  United  States.  Its 
beginning  was  the  "system  federation"  in  the  shop 
departments  of  the  railroads.  The  system  federa- 
tion extends  over  the  lines  of  a  single  railroad  sys- 
tem. It  consists  of  delegates  from  the  various  craft 
unions  working  in  the  shops  of  that  system.  &uch 
bodies  of  delegates  conducted  strikes  and  negotia- 
tions with  the  common  employer  of  the  various 
groups  concerned,  its  first  big  success  being  on  the 
Chicago  and  Northwestern.  This  idea  is  of  course 
the  same  as  the  shop  committee  idea,  applied  to  a 
railroad  system. 

During  the  war  shop  committees,  composed  of 
delegates  from  the  various  craft  unions  concerned, 
were  set  up  for  local  adjustment  in  the  ship  yards, 
the  arsenals  and  navy  yards,  and  many  of  the 
private  munitions  plants.  These  shop  committees 
were  recognized  by  the  unions,  and  worked  hand 
in  hand  with  the  national  "departments"  of  the 
American  Federation  of  Labor.  They  greatly 
strengthened  the  tendency  towards  industrial  un- 


ionism. 


7.     Inter-Craft  Organization  Committees 

Just  as  a  shop  committee  made  up  of  delegates 
from  various  craft  unions  may  apply  industrial  un- 

23 


ti 


H  >•'■!)' 


y-^f/jtm'^ 


-ff  jii,:aW.^*lw  iW* 


ionism  in  the  shop,  so  a  similar  committee,  formed 
for  organizing  non-union  workers,  may  employ 
some  of  the  methods  of  industrial  unionism  in  re- 
cruiting new  members  and  conducting  a  strike. 
Tt  was  William  Z.  Foster  who  first  used  this  idea, 
iri^  order  to  gain  the  advantage  of  industrial  action 
without  at  the  same  time  having  to  fight  the  old 
craft  unions  who  claimed  jurisdiction  over  the 
workers  to  be  organized. 

The  first  such  committee  was  formed  to  organ- 
ize the  Chicago  stockyard  workers,  with  Foster  as 
Secretary,  and  it  succeeded  for  the  first  time  in 
forming  these  low-paid  workers  into  unions,  and 
winning  recognition  for  them.  While  each  worker 
joined  the  union  of  his  particular  craft,  a  joint 
Qpuncil  of  all  the  unions  governed  industrial  action. 

1 1  was  precisely  this  plan  which  Foster  adopted 
to  organize  the  steel  industry;  in  this  case  the  organ- 
izing  committee  being  formed  of  delegates  from 
twenty-four  separate  unions.  A  uniform  initiation 
fee  was  adopted,  and  the  organizing  campaign  was 
carried  on  much  as  if  it  were  the  work  of  one  great 
industrial  union.  The  result  was  the  successful  or- 
ganization of  a  majority  of  the  steel  workers,  and 
the  first  general  strike  in  the  history  of  the  Ameri- 
can steel  industry — a  strike  in  which  greater  num- 
liers  were  involved  than  in  any  previous  strike  in 
the  country.  Although  the  strike  was  unsuccessful 
and  the  A.  F.  of  L.  allowed  the  organization  to  fall 
to   pieces,   Foster   claims   that   the   effort   came   so 


J 


much  nearer  to  success  than  any  other  previously 
made  in  the  steel  industry  that  it  was  justified  The 
strike  might  have  been  lost  under  the  best  conceiv- 
able form  of  organization. 

8.     Workers'  Control 

As  in  the  British  shop-steward  movement,  our 
shop  committees  have  led  to  various  steps  toward 
partial  "workers'  control."  lias  begins  with  such 
simple  matters  as  the  adjustment  of  piece  rates, 
it  goes  on  into  questions  of  management  such  as 
the  improvement  of  processes  and  the  introduction 
of  standards  of  production  under  joint  control  of 
the  union  and  the  employer,  and  in  one  case  it  went 
so  far  as  to  concern  itself  with  the  selling  of  goods 
and  market  conditions.  This  occurred  in  the  gov- 
ernment arsenal  at  Rock  Island,  Illinois.  Here  the 
workmen    wanted    to    avoid    the    unemployment 
which  would  result  from  the  return  of  the  arsenal 
to  a  peace  basis,  and  so  they  urged  its  use  for  the 
manufacture    of    commercial    products    useful    in 
peace  times.  Their  shop  committee  was  working 
with  the  management   in   transforming  the  plant 
for  this  purpose,  but  the  reaction  which  followed 
the  war,  combined  with  the  naturally  conservative 
attitude  of  the  army  officers  in  charge,  caused  the 
government  to   abolish  the   shop   committee  plan 
and  so  kill  this  interesting  experiment. 

Another  plan  for  partial  workers'  control  on  a 
much  wider  scale  was  proposed  in  the  Plumb  Plan 

25 


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for  the  management  of  the  railroads,  li..  ii umh 
rian  IS  significant  not  because  it  is  necessarily  the 
best  possible  plan  for  the  railwov  industry,  but  be- 
cause  for  the  first  time  it  introduced  the  idea  of 
workers    rontrol   on   a  large  scale  into  the  more 
conservative  sections  of  the  labor  movement,  such 
^   the  old  railroad  brotherhoods  and  the  A.  1    oi 
I    jt  calls  for  government  ownership  of  the  roads, 
and  for  their  management  by  a  board  composed  of 
thret   iv|H.  ..  i!{ aii.e.  of  the  classified  (mostly  man- 
'^"■■'  '^■^"'^''  *-n*rpsentatives  of  the  execu- 
chnieal  statfs,  and  three  representatives 
rnment.  An  elaborate  system  was  worked 
distribution   of  the  surplus  earnings 
aiiu  i  g  those  interested. 

9,      Lniii^i    Education 

Education   of  wurkcra  under  the  auspices   of 
the  unions  themselves  has  pro^vn  very  rapidly  with- 
in  the  last  few  years.  This  movement  was  started 
b)    file   International   Ladied'   Garment  Workers' 
Union,  which  established  classes  and  lectures  in 
New  York  and  elsewhere.  It  was  soon  taken  up  by 
the  Amalgamated  and  other  unions,  which  in  1918 
established  the  United  Labor  Education  Committee. 
La^l  %r  11  ifip  Amaij^aniateil  t^tablished  its  own  ed- 
ucaiiuti  il  department  on  a  national  scale,  and  work 
is  being  carried  on  all  over  the  country.  The  Penn- 
sylvania  State  Federation  of  Labor  now  has  an 
educational  committee,  and  Trade-Union  Colleges, 

26 


1 


using  some  of  the  best  university  teachers,  have 
been  set  up  in  Boston,  Philadelphai,  Pittsburgh, 
Chicago,  Minneapolis.  Washington  and  Seattle. 

These  scattered  labor  education  experimental 
activities  recently  met  in  national  conference 
and  a  Workers'  Education  Bureau  of  America  was 
launched  for  the  purpose  of  co-ordination  and 
mutual  help  in  the  important  field  of  labor  educa- 
tion. 

10,     Labor  Press 

Since  the  war  the  labor  press  has  grovu  rapidly 
in  spite  of  unfavorable  conditions,  and  a  immber 
of  newspapers  under  labor  auspices  have  been 
set  up  in  various  parts  of  the  country.  These  papers 
now  have  their  own  news  service,  the  Federated 
Press,  which  has  recently  established  European 
connections,  and  is  developing  plans  for  enlarging 
its  activities  in  the  United  States.  The  workers 
everywhere  are  awaking  to  the  necessity  of  having 
sources  of  information  upon  which  they  can  de- 
pend. 

I  J.     Research  and  Publicity 

Labor  is  also  realizing  its  need  for  accurate  in- 
formation on  its  problems.  It  needs  studies  of  prices 
and  of  wages  for  arbitration  proceedings,  and  it 
needs  studies  of  industry  in  laying  its  plans  and  de- 
veloping its  tactics.    This  has  given  rise  to  an  in- 

27 


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creased  attention  to  economic  and  other  labor  re- 

siZL  "''\'y  "'"""^  "«^  »'«^«  «  research 
^«  ,  i  i.  r"'"''  ^''^  Amalgamated  Clothing  Work- 
have  r.  ^rr*"*""^'  ^^•^•''^'  ^™t  Workers 
search  anT  .t''.^"'"*'"'^'  «°d  independent  re- 
search and  pubhc.ty  agencies  have  been  formed 
to  serve  unions.  ^uruiea 

12.     Organization  of  White-Collar  Workers 

The  organization  of  "white-collar  workers"  has 
not  proceeded  as  rapidly  in  this  country  as  in 
i-ngland,  but  it  has  made  decided  progress.  There 
^re  unions  of  teachers,  bookkeepers,  federal  em- 
ployees clerical  workers  on  the  railroads,  journal- 
ists,  and  actors     Some  of  these  are  extremely  suc- 

13,     Labor  in  Politics 

The  Socialist  Party  has  succeeded  in  gaining 
t^  1-  iipport  of  part  of  the  labor  movement,  but 
;  <itlH^  this  nor  any  of  the  other  radical  paa.es 
It  ive  been  able  to  get  the  official  support  of  auv- 
tiling  like  a  majoritv  ui  ihr  unum.,  A  new  attempt 
io  induce  the  uiiioH^  to  mh  r  upon  independent 
political  action  was  made  recently  by  the  Labor 
Party  of  the  United  States,  subsequently  amalga- 
mated  with  other  groups  to  form  the  Farmer-Labor 

28 


Party.  Although  it  has  been  in  existence  only  a 
short  time,  it  has  been  endorsed  by  many  city  cen- 
tral bodies,  by  twelve  state  federations  of  labor, 
and  by  two  international  unions.  It  lias  iiul  y^t  come 
near  capturing  the  A.  F.  of  L.  as  a  whole,  however. 
Its  total  vote  in  the  Presidential  elections  of  1920 
was    a    little    more    than    half    that    of    the    So- 
cialist Party,  although  in  localities  where  it  suc- 
ceeded in  establishing  itself  it  registered  some  strik- 
ing totals.  In  the  state  of  Washington,  for  instance, 
where  the  strong  and  radical  labor  Tnovemeiit    wn 
heartily  behind  it,  its  vote  was  more  liiaii  luilf  tliat 
of  the  Republicans,  and  was  twice  as  large  as  the 
vote  of  the  Democrats.  One  of  its  chief  difficulties 
in  the  campaign  was  lack  of  funds  to  carry  on  its 
organization  and  publicity  work,  and  such  funds 
will  not  be  available  in  sufficient  quantities  unless 
the  great  unions  can  be  won  over  to  it^  support. 

14,     International  Federations 

In  addition  to  the  Socialist  and  Communist  In- 
ternationals, there  has  for  some  years  been  an  In 
ternational  Federation  of  Trade  Unions,  devoting 
attention  to  union  affairs.  The  American  Federa- 
tion  of  Labor  has  been  affiliated  with  it  until  1920, 
when  Samuel  Gompers  withdrew  uii  the  ground 
that  it  was  "too  radical/"  because  it  urged  direct 
action  to  prevent  war  and  blockade  against  Soviet 
Russia.  Strangely  enough,  while  Gompers  attacked 
it  for  being  too  radical,  the  Third,  or  Communist 

29 


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Its  wirP       "f"^  1*  ^'""  ''^'°g  *«'»  conservative. 
ion  TJ  '^""'  ^^PP'"'""  «f  »•>«  British  un- 

Sn        f  "^^"«''^e  «nd  took  the  same  stand  as 

BrS  N  t  "7,^-'''<^"t'  J-  M.  Thomas  of  the 
British  National  Union  of  Railwaymen,  is  often 
considered  conservative  in  Great  Britai^,  bu  In 
this  country  he  would  doubtless  be  called  a  Bo'sI.e- 
yik  because  he  supports  the  Labor  Party,  believes 
in  nationalization  of  the  mines  and  railroads,  and 
supports  the  International  Federation  in  its  threat 
ot  direct  action  to  prevent  a  new  war.  Most  of  the 
unportant  trade  union  movements  of  Europe  are 
affiliated  with  this  International. 

I„t?r"nnr'  l''"', ^u'"^]   '^^  '^^''^  ">'  Communist 
Jnternational  with  headquarters  at  Moscow,  Russia, 

has  called  into  bemg  another  International  Council 
of  Trade  and  Labor  Unions.  This  red  International 
of  Trade-Umonism  has  gained  the  support  of  a 
number  of  labor  bodies  even  in  this  country,  as 
reported  m  the  press. 

Besides  these  general  Internationals  of  the  uni- 
ons,  there  are  also  international   federations  for 
specifie  industries    whose  interests  spread  beyond 
he  boundaries  of  one  country.   The  seamen,  for 
nstance,  held  a  conference  last  summer  in  Genoa, 
to  decide  important  questions  about  their  trade, 
and  the  mmers  had  a  convention  in  Switzerland 
where  they  resolved,  among  other  things,  to  help 
each   other  m   the   movement   to   nationalize   the 
mmes  of  the  various  countries.  The  United  Mine 

ao 


€ 


Workers  of  America  alone  refrained  from  taking 
an  active  part  in  this  convention. 

In  Copenhagen  an  international  convention  of 
clothing  workers  was  held,  in  which  the  Amalga- 
mated and  the  International  Ladies'  Garment 
Workers'  Union  participated.  It  considered  ques- 
tions of  importance  to  the  industry,  including  im- 
migration. One  of  the  projects  taken  up  was  the 
distribution  of  accurate  information  regarding  the 
industrial  conditions  in  the  various  countries,  so 
that  tailors  would  not  flock  to  places  where  no  em- 
ployment was  to  be  obtained. 


15,     Present  Tendencies 

What  the  future  has  in  store  for  the  trade  un- 
ion movement  in  the  United  States  is  merely  a 
matter  of  conjecture,  but  many  believe  that  a  crisis 
is  at  band  in  which  it  may  see  rapid  changes.  The 
open-shop  campaign  of  the  employers,  combined 
with  the  reactionary  national  administration,  may 
bring  to  a  head  tendencies  which  have  been  gather- 
ing force  now  for  some  years.  It  is  probable,  at  least, 
that  the  trend  toward  industrial  unionism  will  be- 
come more  pronounced,  and  that  a  more  aggressive 
leadership  will  before  many  years  succeed  the  pres- 
ent regime  of  the  American  Federation  of  Labor. 
In  addition  to  this,  some  look  for  a  drif*  toward 
independent  political  action,  toward  growth  of  the 
co-operative  movement,  or  toward  an  increase  of 

81 


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workers'  control  in  industry.  The  only  certainty 
is  that  the  unions  are  facing  a  bitter  warfare  forced 
upon  them  by  the  employers,  and  we  all  know  that 
under  conditions  of  warfare  drastic  changes  are 
likely  to  occur. 


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